Word: pentagonals
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Scandal-starved Washington cocked an expectant ear for a star-spangled shocker when, two months ago, a House subcommittee set out to find out whether retired military officers were being hired by defense contractors to use undue influence on old friends and former colleagues in the Pentagon. Last week the House Armed Services Investigation subcommittee sat down to take testimony, produced only a couple of stars, few spangles, no scandal...
...chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff while Air Force General Nathan Twining is recuperating from a lung cancer operation. Radford, 63, earns $12,000 a year as a director of the Philco Corp. (electronics), and about the same amount in retirement pay. The amount of influence exercised on Pentagon people, he said, "is very small-but I wouldn't say it doesn't exist." Besides, retired officers probably have less influence than most people think. "They are really out of it once they leave." Best way to avoid string-pulling temptation, Radford suggested, is to require...
...year regular with a good record, had the expert and ready assistance of Specialist Fifth Class George B. Huller, at 23 a six-year man with an equally fine record, on duty as a personnel clerk at division headquarters. Theirs was the job of filling in the names when Pentagon orders called for overseas billets by classification, and Huller's initials were all that was needed to make the orders effective. Coogan collected $10 to $200 from each would-be overseas soldier, and Huller did the paperwork, juggling classifications and assignments to send the customer where he wanted...
Rising to his feet in the Senate last week, Illinois Democrat Paul Douglas took out after the Pentagon and its defense contractors. Said Douglas: "The system of defense procurement has led to great abuse. And when companies hire former officers to negotiate with their former fellow officers, the abuses are magnified." With that, Douglas released figures showing that 88 of the nation's 100 top contractors employed no fewer than 721 ex-officers with the rank of colonel and up. Douglas said darkly that there is grave suspicion that many of these men were hired as influence peddlers...
...Aero Commander planes. I can't even sell one to the military. How's that for influence?" When it comes to pressuring for contracts, he charged that the real big leaguers are in Congress itself. "Every time some Congressman wants a contract for a hometown favorite, the Pentagon is supposed to jump." Businessmen noted that Representative Santangelo himself complained that New York was not getting its fair share of contracts; the West Coast was getting all the gravy...